7 Amazing Reasons Why You Should Own A Dog

Are you wondering why you should own a dog? Dogs have over the years been known as man’s best friend and it has been shown that a dog offers more than just companionship to its owners.

Owning a dog can be a wonderful experience and some of the greatest moments in life could be defined by our pets. However, it is important to note that taking care of a dog takes time and patience.

Fascinating facts and benefits on why you should own a dog have been discovered and proven. From lowering your stress levels and blood pressure to speeding up recovery time from illness, explore more possibilities below:

Why You Should Own A Dog

1. Better heart health

Dogs actually make your heart stronger. Asides the fact that simply petting a dog lowers a person’s heart rate, studies have shown that having a canine companion is linked to lower blood pressure, reduced cholesterol, and decreased triglyceride levels, which contribute to better overall cardiovascular health and fewer heart attacks.

Moreso, some research has shown that dog owners are much more likely to survive a heart attack compared to non-owners. In particular, male pet owners tend to experience a reduced rate of heart disease.

A Chinese study also found that people who own dogs get better sleep at night and are sick less often.

2. Better resistance to allergies

Although dogs can be awful triggers for people with allergies, children who are raised around a dog are less likely to have allergies. Interestingly, living in a home with a dog can help kids grow up to have an increased immunity to pet allergies later in life.

3. Less depression and more happiness

Owning a dog also earns you mental health and help prevent loneliness and isolation. There’s a wide belief that dog owners are less prone to depression than other people, largely because they seem to help in so many other areas of health and wellbeing.

Caring for a dog helps relieve symptoms of depression and encourages people to be more positive. Since taking care of a dog requires a routine and forces you to stay at least a little active, it is harder to stay inside feeling down all the time. The interaction with and love received from them can also help people stay positive. Even the mere act of looking at your pet increases the amount of oxytocin, the “feel good” chemical, in the brain.

4. Decrease in general illness

Dogs are full of germs! Having a dog in the house means more diverse bacteria enters the home, consequently, our microbiome learns how to defend to more diverse types of bacteria, which leads to our body being more prepared.

In other words, people with dogs seem to get ill less frequently and less severely than people—especially children—with cats or no pets. Dog owners tend to have lower triglyceride and cholesterol levels compared to non-dog owners.

5. Improved social life

Research has shown that about 40 percent of dog owners make friends more easily, possibly because a vast majority speak with other dog owners during walks. Dogs are brilliant conversation starters and many first-time dog owners are genuinely amazed by how many new people they meet.

It is believed that people trust others who have dogs more than just random people walking on the street and are more likely to go up and interact with them. Not only does walking your canine help you to get exercise, it might also help you get a date.

6. Dogs might be cancer detectors

It is believed that dogs have the ability of smelling cancer in the human body and may save your life.

A dog’s amazing sense of smell can be used for a variety of purposes including cancer detection, and many owners have reported their dog sniffing, licking, or nudging spots that later turned out to be cancerous. Studies have also shown that some dogs are trained to detect cancer.

7. Dogs make you feel safer

Another reason why you should own a dog is that it might make you feel safer when you need to leave your house alone as canines are popular effective home security systems.

Dogs tend to develop a sense of belonging to a certain place or to their owners, which leads them to let their protective instinct out when a stranger comes by.

Studies show that barking dogs deter burglars and can help increase your sense of security, which is good for both your mental and physical health.